1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to communication systems and more particularly to communication systems having call quality indication capability.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cellular telephones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and other portable electronic devices having communication capability have become fixtures of everyday life over the last several years. As they evolve, prices continue to fall while the devices' capabilities have expanded. Currently, such devices can be used in many places to make wireless connection to the Internet, play games, as well as carry out email and other messaging functions. It can readily be anticipated that as time goes by, the capabilities of such devices will continue to expand as prices continue to fall, making use of such devices a permanent part of people's daily lives.
Many factors can influence the quality of communications received and/or transmitted to/from a wireless communication device, including geography, weather, foliage and buildings. For example, stormy weather can interfere with radio frequency signals, causing poor reception/transmission quality. Similarly, in some wooded areas, you may have good reception/transmission during the winter, when there are no leaves on the trees, but poor reception/transmission in the summer or fall. Buildings and other structures may cause more or less interference with the desired communication signals, depending on the method of construction used and the design of the building or other structure.
Today, some wireless communication devices have a one-way signal strength indicator that is a rough estimator of quality of the radio frequency signal between the covering base station and the receiving wireless communication device. This indicator provides the device user with an indication of the signal quality for his/her communication device only. For example, an icon can be incorporated showing a measurement of the current signal strength between the device and the communication system. This icon, for example, can be displayed on a display of the device. Similarly, an icon to indicate that no signal reception is available can be displayed. This can be useful when the device is outside the system service area. In some devices, when the reception is so poor that the call is being terminated, a call quality alarm is sounded or displayed for the user.